#1: [19-Jun-04]

21-May-2005 -- Our plan to visit confluence 9N 7E was a very quick decision. Saturday at around 11 a.m. Helmut phoned Babsi and myself and suggested that we visit the Confluence since we pass it on our way down to the South where our major goal, confluence 7N 7E is situated.

We left Abuja at 1 p.m. straight from work, our friend Uli had visited the Confluence last year. He was supposed to join us on this trip but was delayed because of work related matters. Nevertheless, we got some useful hints from him and just in an hour we were about 1.6 km away from the Confluence. We off-loaded our motorbikes on the southeastern slope of the hills in front of us. Babs who had the best functioning GPS was leading the way through the lush bush and newly planted cassava and maize fields.

After a short while we reached the southern slope of the hill and the last 110 meters to the Confluence we walked. We made the compulsory pictures and returned to our vehicles. It was a short trip to the Confluence and back to the vehicles but a strange stomach bug, which some of us still suffered, and the heat, the thermometer in my back bag indicated 50° Celsius, no doubt these conditions took their toll on us and we were all very exhausted after this short visit.

We continued our journey, went back to Gwagwalada, followed the road to Lokoja, and turned off towards Ajaokuta. At Ajaokuta we were invited by Heimo Schmidt, better known in this area as "The lord of the white gold". Heimo is running a quarry, which is of strategic importance to this area, and his lovely wife Traudl is running the "Berghof". Traudl was born and raised in upper Austria and the "Berghof" is the best bar and accommodation in this area.

We all enjoyed a fantastic evening at this bar, the evening meal consisted of a barbecue, Babsi's famous potato salad was excellent, and the cold beers were flowing at a seemingly never ending pace. Around midnight we all went to bed, after all we wanted to be fit enough the next morning to visit confluence 7N 7E.